Sparky
Ian’s parole hearing went well as he is now a free man. Lip picks him up and Tami is all that’s on Lip’s mind. He’s used to taking care of Fred and he’s worried how well Tami will take to being a mom. Ian quickly learns that the Gallagher globe has been spinning without him. No one is home except for Anne’s relatives who he doesn’t know and all the bedrooms are decorated differently (he quickly picks out which one is Carl’s). With family scattered all over, Ian goes to see his parole officer who is running a racket with the local ambulance corps. They’re not doing real work, putting in false insurance claims and the parole officer is getting a cut of it. When Ian objects, his new co-workers tell him to keep his head down. If he makes noise, he will never get off parole…or worse.
Lip is really worried about how Tami will do as a parent. She’s thrown into the deep end just out of the hospital and she’s struggling to handle it. Fred won’t feed from her and he basically cries non-stop. Not unusual for any newborn, but Tami takes it personally convinced that Fred hates her with Lip having bonded with him in the time she’s been in the hospital. Lip calls in some help when he finds out she hasn’t been able to feed Fred all day which crosses a few boundaries. While Tami does take the help from Sara and it makes her life a little easier, she’s mad at Lip for calling another woman in to fix her apparent deficiencies as a mother. Once Tami and Lip are alone they manage to talk about their situation, both their fears, her insecurities, and Lip’s desire to do anything he can to help her. Probably the best scene in the episode.
In other relationship news, Kelly can clearly pick out the growing attraction between Carl and Anne. She’s upset about it but then when it’s revealed that she’s been cheating on Carl, they realize their relationship isn’t what it used to be. With Kelly shipping off soon, it doesn’t look like Kelly and Carl are in it for the long haul.
Carl is Todd’s basketball manager, navigating all the scouting offers that the talented player is getting. With his honed hustling skills, Carl takes care of himself and Todd with perks while setting up everything for Ian’s welcome home party for free.
Deb has moved forward with going after Pepa for her cut of Derek’s insurance money and she’s got more leg work to do than she thought. Pepa is proving to be an expert at dodging court papers so Deb takes matters into her own hands. After some Ninja Warrior level races, she serves Pepa the papers, forcing her into court. And then it takes a turn for the worse when Pepa shows up with legit military lawyers and the woman she’s been listening to isn’t actually a lawyer. Pepa is now on the offensive demanding full custody of Frannie in return for any money.
Our final Gallagher gets two potential piggy banks dropped into his lap when Randy shows up with twins babies in tow. Ingrid has gone AWOL, jumping from a cruise ship, so he no longer wants anything to do with Ingrid and the babies he didn’t father. Frank says no and it comes out that they are genetically Carl’s kids and then gets an idea. He’ll sell them into adoption. He only takes one (the “best one” as scientifically chosen by the one that crawls the fastest) and if it all goes well, he con Randy out of the other baby. This is super gross even by Frank’s standards.
The Balls are on two separate self-discovery journeys. Kev finds out he was the only one on his junior high basketball team not to get molested by their coach and feels left out. Not looking at the obvious benefits of not being traumatized, it goes back to his shallow self-image and confidence issues. When he hears what the coach did to the others, he wisely keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t make anything up to “include” himself.
V is killing it as a pharma rep, leveraging her own lies that Frank would be proud of to sell more doctors on her assigned pill of choice. It’s the biggest career gain she’s ever had and lands an invite to the BBQ, where a lot of doctors and potential commission await her.
I’m happy to see Tami and Lip move forward and Anne and Carl seem like a better match together. I doubt anyone has thought Kelly and Carl would last so this looks like her time is almost up on the show. I can’t see Deb giving up Frannie for any reason so I don’t see what else they can do with her fight with Pepa, so this plot should be over very soon too. Unless Pepa goes all in by claiming Deb is an unfit mother. And what are they going to do to keep Ian interesting, weirder and weirder insurance scams? Will he go the righteous right and take down his parole officer? They said she’s been doing this for years so that could offer him a good challenge.